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Colorado is testing a new approach to providing services to struggling families in an effort to address the intergenerational cycle of poverty, incarceration and foster care. Two Generation (2Gen) is a new initiative by the state recognizing that children and their parents are best served by recognizing the needs of the entire family unit. “CDHS embedded the 2Gen approach into all of our services, recognizing that our clients only succeed when their providers or children also get the support...

M idday on a Monday, I walked briskly into the Shim Story Public Convenience Lounge, hoping to take a quick peek at the café craze sweeping Seoul before resuming my reporting on North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Then I lost my shoes. They were taken by a bubbly, bespectacled man named Jung Oon-mo, who handed me slippers and guided me past curtained massage chairs and cubicles containing heated beds and dozing customers. Soon enough, I was ensconced in a beanbag chair in the common room (nearly...

America is at a crossroads: Our nation is as divided as at any point since the Civil War. Our cities face a new crisis of escalating housing costs, rampant gentrification, and a growing gap between rich and poor. In his new book out today, Palaces for the People , my New York University colleague Eric Klinenberg , a sociologist, makes the case that a better future for our cities and our society can be built around the concept of social infrastructure. Following a long tradition of social...

Want the best results out of your employees? Then be nice to them. New research from Binghamton University, State University at New York finds that showing compassion to subordinates almost always pays off, especially when combined with the enforcement of clear goals and benchmarks. "Being benevolent is important because it can change the perception your followers have of you," said Chou-Yu Tsai, an assistant professor of management at Binghamton University's School of Management. "If you...

A ZIP code is 5 numbers meant to deliver mail to people—not indicate how long they live. Unfortunately, significant gaps in life expectancy persist across many United States cities and towns. The latest data reveals differences down to the census tract level, even for residents just a few miles or blocks apart. Explore how life expectancy in America compares with life expectancy in your area, and resources to help everyone have the opportunity to live a longer, healthier life. How does where...

From criminalization of mental illness to Mental Hospital Diversionary Respites. (An article that was not published in Baltimore Sun.) Almost 55 years had passed since President John F. Kennedy signed Community Mental Health Act into a law. This act provided funding to open 1500 Community Mental Health Centers and allowed the states to close many of the large mental institutions where people with serious mental health problems were warehoused. This Act also lead to adoption of Medicaid in...

Boundless love extends out from the love we know firsthand. This is why Buddhism reminds us to remember the love we have received from our mothers and fathers (or caregivers), and then build on that. Maybe our relationship with our parents was not an easy love, maybe even thinking in this way brings up heartache. But that is part of the practice too, as cultivating love puts us in touch with the whole experience of life—both the beauty of the world and its pain. Where is our love when we...

Here are ten action steps you can implement in your life in order to create positive change:

In July, medical residents in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose, CA, began screening adult patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). But it’s an ACE survey with a twist: it’s shorter, not the 10-question survey of the original CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study , according to Dr. Kathryn Ridout who is leading the pilot along with Dr. Francis Chu and Dr. Alec Uy . Why a shorter ACE survey? Dr. Kathryn Ridout “When we were doing our initial discussions with stakeholders in...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Schickedanz A, Halfon N, Sastry N, Chung PJ. Parents' Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Children's Behavioral Health Problems. Pediatrics. 2018 Aug;142(2).

“When those preschool ladies embraced me with such love and affection, I almost cried because for the first time in my young life I felt like adults were thoughtful to my needs.” (Liz Huntley, “Be a Game Changer”, Tedx Birmingham)

When Arthur Ashe won the men's singles final at the first U.S. Open in 1968, he made history as the first African-American man to win the Open. That record holds to this day. Photos show a pensive Ashe with his arm around his proud father, Arthur Ashe Sr., his silver trophy tray held in one hand. Over the years, Ashe would be remembered as a tennis champion, but also as a champion of civil and human rights. Tennis was the portal through which he became famous, but by the time he died at age...